Lord Mayor tackles traffic congestion in Budget

19 June, 2014

Lord Mayor Graham Quirk has announced the continued rollout of the left turn on red project at up to 50 more intersections across the city as part of a $68.4 million commitment for tackling traffic congestion.

The Lord Mayor said the announcement was part of the 2014-15 Budget and followed a successful trial period of the initiative at five locations between November and March this year which showed an average reduction in delays of up to 30 seconds at trial locations.

“We are always looking for innovative ways to keep the city moving which is why we investigated whether the capacity for allowing motorists to turn left on a red light at selected intersections would be beneficial,” he said.

“This improvement hasn’t come at the cost of road safety and to date the Queensland Police Service has not reported any incidents due to introduction of this project.”

Several traffic surveys were undertaken throughout the trial to capture driver behaviour and the effect on other road users, with the assessment finding the number of vehicles turning left on red increased as awareness increased.

Cr Quirk said the assessment also found average delay reductions of 20-30 seconds at Gowan and Hellawell Roads intersection during weekday peak hours, while 15 seconds was measured at the Lutwyche and Bowen Roads intersection during the same time period.

“This demonstrates the program is having the desired effect of reducing congestion,” he said.

“Even small changes have beneficial flow-on effects for the network and we are now undertaking investigations on the suitability of other intersections across Brisbane.

“This is based on a strict set of criteria and following extensive assessment of intersections across the city, up to 50 locations have been identified as potential sites to rollout in 2014-15.”

Council also conducted customer feedback as part of the left turn on red assessment and found 95 per cent of residents surveyed understood how the initiative worked and 85 per cent supportive of additional sites being installed.

Cr Quirk said in addition to the left turn on red rollout, Council would undertake a number of projects to fix traffic choke points with a $5.8 million allocation for congestion reduction initiatives will deliver no less than 35 upgrades to improve traffic hot spots.

“The projects vary from reconfiguring lanes to line marking alterations, and while these are relatively minor upgrades they have significant flow on effects for the road network in terms of reducing queuing in turning lanes, increasing traffic capacity and improving travel times.”
[Ends] June 18, 2014